By Erica Christoffer

Quick skim
The telephone continues to be an integral part of a sales professional’s business. It is often the first point of contact with clients—so you need to know how to make a good impression. Can you get your point across and grab a person’s attention in seven seconds? Author Dirk Zeller outlines a strategic system in his book Telephone Sales for Dummies (For Dummies, 2007) on how to enhance your sales phone skills. He covers everything from rehearsing dialogue and conducting pre-call research, to preparing for objections and overcoming sales call aversion.

           Buy This Book

From the Book: 5 Ways to Improve Your Telephone Presence

Here are just a few of Zeller's tips on bettering your phone presence.

1. Start asking questions. Well though-out questions are one of the best ways to achieve a successful sale. Questions produce greater understanding between you and your client. Find out your clients needs, expectations and reservations. It will help you come to solutions and customize your sales presentation to each of your clients. Even if you don’t land the sale, you'll learn where to make improvements by asking questions.

2. Practice, practice, practice. Know what you’re going to say before you make that phone call and rehearse it. Have an opening script prepared and in front of you. The window of opportunity to get your message across while prospecting is small. Don’t open with the traditional, “How are you today?” Be genuine, says Zeller. Get to the point of why you’re calling and give them a reason to stay on the phone with you.

3. Do some pre-call research. Prospecting takes careful studying beforehand. You have to know your market. Doing research will help in answering questions and problem solving. Plus, it

puts you in a better light. People want to do business with someone who knows their stuff. Know the objective of your call, whether it is booking an appointment, procuring a referral or making a presentation.

4. Be an active listener. If you want to turn your prospects into clients, you need to hear what they need. Consider taking notes. By jotting down key points, concerns and questions that the prospect has, you'll be able to stay on point. Ask them to elaborate if you don’t understand something they said.

5. Set goals. Develop and follow a prospecting plan and make it part of your daily routine. If you say you’re going to contact 20 prospects today, then do it. Set aside time to do research and rehearse the script. A daily plan builds good prospecting habits and fights off distractions.

Sneak Peak

“What exactly is a sales objection and how can you clearly identify one? When a prospect says, ‘I want to think it over,’ or ‘the other supplier will do it for less,’ or ‘you’re too inexperienced,’ you have just heard an objection. But instead of seeing an objection as a rejection or a ‘no,’ understand it for what it really is: A request for more information, an appeal for the knowledge to justify to the prospect that buying your product or service is the right thing to do, and an opportunity for you to offer clarification regarding the details the prospect is questioning.”

About the Author

Drawing on more than 20 years of real estate experience, Dirk Zeller has published more than 300 articles and six books. His first For Dummies book, Real Estate Agent For Dummies was published in 2006. He is the president, CEO and founder of both Sales Champions and Real Estate Champions, which provides coaching and training to professionals worldwide. Zeller is recognized as an industry leader and sought-after speaker. His workshops outline business-improving strategies for real estate agents and sales professionals.

Posted on January 26 at 08:57 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (4)

Here are the top selling books in sales and marketing from Amazon.com:

1. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, By Malcolm Gladwell

2. Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Teal Book of Trust: How to Earn It, Grow It, and Keep It to Become a Trusted Advisor in Sales, Business and Life, By Jeffrey Gitomer

3. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, By Dan Ariely

4. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, By Robert B. Cialdini

5. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly, By David Meerman Scott

6. Principles of Marketing (12th Edition), By Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong

7. Marketing Management (13th Edition), By Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller

8. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, By Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

9. MKTG 2.0, 2008 - 2009 Student Edition, By Charles W. Lamb, Joseph F. Hair and Carl McDaniel

10. Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, By Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini

Posted on January 12 at 10:52 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (1)

By Erica Christoffer

The Weekly Book Scan talked to author Jennifer Allan about her new book, Sell With Soul, which was featured last week on the blog (read a mini review).

What does "selling with soul" mean?

ALLAN: What "sell with soul" means to me is two things. First, be yourself and trust your gut and your intuition. Create a real estate career around who you are as opposed to what someone else tells you who you need to be. The other thing "sell with soul" means to me is somewhat along the lines of the golden rule —that you’re competent at what you do and if someone hires you, you do a great job for them.

What led to you write this book?

ALLAN: Back in 2003, a girlfriend of mine just started working at a real estate company and she called me in tears. She said: “I don’t know what I’m doing. These people are teaching me to prospect, they’re teaching me to cold call, but I don’t know what to do with this business when it comes in.” And then she said, “You know, Jennifer, you should write a book about how to actually be a good real estate agent.”

I thought it sounded fun so I just sat down and started writing. I never intended it to be part of my career. I was selling real estate and making a whole bunch of money doing it. But my goal was to write a book teaching real estate agents how to be competent real estate agents, as opposed to competent prospectors.

What are the biggest mistakes you think REALTORS® make in their careers?

ALLAN: The biggest mistake I think REALTORS® make—and this is a big focus of my book— is they forget who they are. They try to implement methods and strategies that don’t ring true to them, that feel kind of icky, but their trainers and their coaches and the books they read convince them that this is what they have to do to succeed. They get up every morning dreading their job.

A lot of agents go at this part time in the beginning and I understand why they do that. But

there’s an awful lot to learn when you're new in real estate. If you can’t devote your time or if you “waste your time” on a regular basis as a new agent, you’re not going to get the practice you need, you’re not going to get the lessons you need.

The other mistake today is being underfunded, meaning going into this career without a nest egg. I train new agents at my office and if they don’t have a nest egg, within a month, they’re desperate and they’re going to quit.

Instead of jumping into real estate part time, go get another career for a year and save up that nest egg. If you’re going to work two jobs, why not make that second one that actually pays. Then save up for your dream of being a real estate agent, then you can hit it full time when you’re actually ready.

What are some mistakes in your career you’ve learned from?

ALLAN: Putting your paycheck ahead of your client. In those situations where you probably could push your clients to do something that will benefit you, it’s very tempting to do that. But what I’ve learned is pushing people to do something is not the best method.

The more you support your clients’ decisions and their intelligence and the more you respect them, the more likely they are to make the right decision. That decision might negatively affect your paycheck, but you need to realize this is a long term career and it really doesn’t do you any good to push someone to a closing if it’s not the right thing for them.

Have you needed to adjust your technique at all in this market?

ALLAN: The vast majority of my business has come in from my sphere of influence – the people I know and the people I meet. I’ve never done any traditional, formal prospecting. But there isn’t enough business right now.

What I’ve found is I need to adjust my expectations to what a successful year is going to be; it’s not the same as it was five years ago. We’re all going to have to adjust our lifestyles to get through this. We can’t manufacture buyers, we can’t help sellers create more equity; it is what it is.

Personally, I need to get into the world more often. I need to get my antenna up and speak intelligently about real estate when the opportunity arises. Agents should approach this industry less as a numbers game and more as one-on-one time. Take this time to build a pipeline of people who really think you’re great.

What are some tips you can give to help people looking to get out there with their “antennas up?”

ALLAN: The biggest thing if you’re going to do a sphere of influence model is to never ask for business and referrals. Get rid of all the “I love referrals” nonsense. I’m adamantly opposed to that practice. I think it makes you appear desperate and it puts your friends on the spot. Your friends will support your real estate business if they think you’re the best man for the job. If your friends think you’re a cheesy sales person, they’re not going to support you.

You need to be referral-worthy. The secret to a successful sphere of business model is to be a great real estate agent who loves her job and knows her market and stay in touch with the people she knows. Never ever pester them for business and referrals.

Tell me about your writing career.

ALLAN: Sell with Soul was my first book. It took me about a year to write it. I’ve written six other E-books and several of them are in the process of being turned into continuing education courses. I’m also an industry blogger. I contribute to several real estate newsletters. And, I do speaking, training and consulting.

I write very much how I speak. So this book doesn’t read like a typical how-to book. I’m not really instructing people, I’m chatting with them for 13 to 14 chapters. It’s very autobiographical. There are 60-some anecdotes in there that are very true from my career. My goal was not to tell everyone how wonderful I was and how I did everything right. It was to say, “OK, I really messed this up; here’s what I learned from that.”

What motivates you?

ALLAN: What I love about this career is what I’ve always loved about it; it’s the opportunity to creatively solve problems. I don’t get any particular thrill out of prospecting. I love the day-to-day process of selling real estate. As I’ve been doing it longer and I get better at it, the problems to solve get more difficult and more complicated, and I love the satisfaction of solving those problems and getting through that.

Posted on January 5 at 10:52 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (6)